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Old 05-27-2004, 03:10 PM   #256
Nurumaiel
Vice of Twilight
 
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Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: on a mountain
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Argeleafa started when she heard Bellyn speak to her, and then she flushed with pleasure and some shyness. She moved a little closer to the group, dropping her dancing eyes to hide the joy in them. Liornung cast a grateful look at Bellyn. Perhaps the latter didn't even know what Argeleafa felt, but it was welcome for someone to speak to the lass. Argeleafa lifted the skirt of her dress a little above her ankles to allow her to walk more freely. She stared intensely at the ground, longing to look up at Bellyn as she spoke but much too shy. "I... I don't know what I think of our journey," she said, "but I do miss my home, and my family. Sometimes I wish I was home now and not treading these roads, but... I also wish this journey would never end, for I know when it does I shall have nowhere to go. I do not want to stay at my home all alone, but I do not want to rejoin my parents for to do so I would rejoin the wayfarers."

Liornung drew in a sharp breath. He had not considered that. He had been intending to bring the girl back to her home and family when the journey was over, but he realized now it was impossible. She had no home, and her family was with the wayfarers. She did not want to go back to that life; she couldn't go back to that life. Yet... where else could she go? Even if the house had not been sold by her father, could she stay there all alone? Perhaps she had an uncle or a grandfather somewhere. How simple it would be if she had a lover. A husband would solve all difficulties. "Argeleafa, have you any relations? An uncle, perhaps, or grandparents?"

She looked at him in surprise at the unexpected question. "Why, no, I don't," she said. "My uncles died in the War when I was very young, and my grandparents died in a sickness that came to the village they lived in. My only relations are my parents."

"What about..." He hesitated. It was an odd question to ask. "To put it quite bluntly, have you any lover?"

She blushed and for a moment a glimmer of hope came to him, but then she shook her head. And she was being truthful, as well. Alas for that. She must have merely been the kind of lass that thought the subject rather delicate. She had no lover, she had no relations. Perhaps Ędegard would know what she should do. No, no, of course not. Ędegard was the leader of their group on this journey. It was not his business what the members of their company did at the end. And if Liornung could think of nothing, could Ędegard think of anything?

He cast it aside in his mind. Their journey was not yet close to being ended, and he would concern himself with the problem when the time came. For now he would be light and merry. He turned to Bellyn, a smile on his face. "Sing a song for us, sweet Bella," he said. "Your voice is lovely, and I think it would please Lord Amroth."
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